One Million Infant Deaths
In India From ChernobylBY DR. SUMIT GHOSHAL
APRIL 26, 2000: FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER, THE BAD NEWS IS STILL COMING IN AS A NEW ESTIMATE SHOWS, IT MAY HAVE CLAIMED THE LIVES OF A STAGGERING ONE MILLION INFANTS IN INDIA ALONE!
This shocking announcement came today at a meeting organised in Mumbai to observe the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. R Ashok Kumar, a well known activist of the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, explained that the Chernobyl meltdown was of such gargantuan proportions that it affected even far away countries like India.
He noted that prior to 1986, the infant mortality rate in India was coming down by a compounded rate of 3.0 per cent. However, it was observed that the IMR fell by only about 1.1 per cent during the years of 1986, 1987 and 1988, precisely when the Chernobyl catastrophe occurred. This marks a relative increase in infant deaths. Even more interesting was the fact that from 1989 onwards, the rate of reduction in IMR again became 3.0 per cent, that is, it returned to the pre-Chernobyl figures. These statistics are obtained from demography department of the International Institute of Population Studies in Mumbai and may thus be corroborated by anybody who wishes to do so.
Along with this, Mr Ashok Kumar said, were a number of independent studies indicating that the maximum effect of sudden exposure of radiation in human beings lasts for about three years. This is a likely explanation of the relative increase in death of innocent babies less than one year old. Besides, it is widely understood that even low levels of radiation inflicts maximum damage during stages of rapid cell division and tissue growth, which takes place in ante-natal life and the first few months after birth of the infant.
More evidence to support this hypothesis comes from Salem County, New Jersey, USA, where members of the Radiation Health Group studied the impact of the Nuclear Power Plant in that area. Mr Joseph Mangano, a research associate with the Group noted recently that there was a clear statistical connection between the nuclear plants in Salem and the infant mortality in that county. Ever since the atomic power plant in Salem went on stream in 1977, infant mortality rates went up steadily in 13 of the subsequent 16 years. In the rest of New Jersey state, infant death rates were going down. However, in the years 1994 to 1996, during which the nuclear power plants were largely or completely shut down, the infant death rates dropped below the 1977 levels! Anyone can see the striking similarity to the Indian situation. More details can be expected on this later this year, when their Tooth Fairy Project results are published. Participants in the Project are going around Salem county collecting the milk teeth of small babies when they fall off. The idea is that radiation tends to accumulate in the teeth, which can be thoroughly studied over a long
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